The concept of marriage is dead.  It is just many do not know this yet.  The fact that “marriage” involves the state government into your otherwise private relations is the issue.  The “to death to us part” portion is just as stated.  Believe that the fact that your divorce does NOT end the contract with whoever you were married.  By the states rules you are saddled for LIFE.  And more importantly, the state sponsered divorce machine WILL take it’s pound of flesh.  While you may think simply living together will solve the marriage “contract” issues, think again… when this almost $200B industry finds out there is a decline in new victims, they will begin to include living arrangements in marriage like laws or push victims into marriage be inforcing existing laws against such practices.  All attributes of the so-called family court system are detrimental to the core of our society and our children.  By signing a marriage contract we allow the governement into our partnership and it is always for “worst”.  My hope is more young people will get informed and thus avoid mistakes I have made in getting married.  Times HAVE changed, it is NOT the same world as when our parents married.

http://guesswhotoo6.googlepages.com/

Marriage, in my book, is God’s (or nature’s) law for love, mutual comfort and procreation of the human race. When marriage is shun in this alarming way as the statistics suggest, then there is something fundamentally wrong with the society and it values.

I agree with comment # 56650 by James that it is an indication of selfish, greedy and Godless (nature-less) way of life and a diminishing of natural love in the society; all of which will certainly lead to the destruction of the family structure and eventually the society at large.

This report really made me feel sad and depressed!

I can’t imagine why anyone would want to be married?

Who would want the liability of having children that will ultimately be raised by someone else?  If your lucky you get every other weekened, one night a week, and a ticket to poverty for 18 years. Lucky because, so many men can’t even see their children. 

The family law industry forces children to live in poverty, simply because they don’t consider time spend with dad, as really a part of a child’s life. Only the time spent with mom counts.

Because, the courts have made, father synonymous with felon.

The whole organization of county government depends on “harvesting income” from Dad, to make up for all the money they lost due to wellfare reform.

They still don’t have a clue as to what they’ve done, or understand the impact for the future.

Each one of these sad little percentages, represents millions of emotionaly damaged children.

Families, “they” say, are the very foundation of society.  I believe this.  It does seem, though, that world governments, if they believe it, are doing everything they can to destroy that foundation.  I don’t mind the work it takes to sustain a marriage, but I’d certainly think long and hard before bringing children into this world, whether or not I could afford them and I think that might be part of what’s going on here. Sort of like the Consumer Confidence Index.

Oddly enough few people complain of genocide.

A rough economy is better than a draft.  War is good for economy.  Split families are better for the apartment market.  That brings income to many hard working investors.

Nothing new.
In our “live large” society money and physical possessions have become the most important things.
Stable family life for the children and to marry for richer or poorer in health & sickness to death do us part Is “NO LONGER IMPORTANT”.
Screw our current greedy and godless way of life.
We are truly a society on its way to destruction.

Also interesting would be a study of divorce rates during these years.

Year
Divorces per 1,000 population

1950 ...........
2.6

1955 ...........
2.3

1957 ...........
2.2

1960 ...........
2.2

1965 ...........
2.5

1970 ...........
3.5

1971 ...........
3.7

1972 ...........
4.0

1973 ...........
4.3

1974 ...........
4.6

1975 ...........
4.8

1976 ...........
5.0

1977 ...........
5.0

1978 ...........
5.1

1979 ...........
5.3

1980 ...........
5.2

1981 ...........
5.3

1982 ...........
5.1

1983 ...........
5.0

1984 ...........
5.0

1985 ...........
5.0

1986 ...........
4.9

1987 ...........
4.8

1988 ...........
4.8

1989 ...........
4.7

1990 ...........
4.7

1991 ...........
4.7

1992 ...........
4.8

1993 ...........
4.6

1994 ...........
4.6

1995 ...........
4.4

1996 ...........
4.3

1997 ...........
4.3

1998 ..........
4.2

1999 ..........
4.1

2000 ..........
4.2

2001 ..........
4.0

Sources:  (Mostly from NCHS, some from Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the U.S., which often differs from NCHS by 0.01%)

http://www.divorcereform.org/rates.html

http://www.divorcereform.org/03statab.html

Note the jump in rates in 1970, and the small decrease, during the very prosperous late 50’s (55’-60’s)The taboo of divorce is now gone, which was common in pre-sixties period.

I would attribute the current 4 per 1,000 of population rate, from the 5 per 1000 of the 80’s, to less people even marrying in the first place. And the properous years of the late 90’s early 2000’s.

A declining standard of living is anti-family not the other way around. The right wing now is now proposing increasing marriage rates to decrease poverty. But families under financial stress , would still not perform well as a functioning unit. The pressures that are breaking down the family would remain. Not to mention the social interference into one of the most personal decisions in one’s life by the government.

( a supposedly very un-republician idea, but hypocrisy seldom troubles that crowd )